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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Light and funny...and easily forgotten, November 19, 2009
This review is from: The Morning Show Murders: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Reading this book felt, for me, like reading a novelization of a made-for-TV murder mystery circa 1986. In style, tone, and characterization--really everything except the rather persistent pop culture references--Al Roker's "The Morning Show Murders" harkens back to Murder She Wrote, Matlock, Father Dowling, and other classic TV fare: a bit of murder and intrigue, all handled fairly comically, with a large cast of unique personalities in a pretty unrealistic situation.
Who can protest a cast of major and minor characters which includes a celebrity chef, an all-business TV executive, a security guard named after Andy Warhol, a mysterious all-knowing Yoda-like figure in a track suit, an obnoxious restaurant hostess, a lesbian comic book artist, a couple gruff and clueless cops, an ex-terrorist-turned-bestselling-author, and, of course, a faceless and legendary international assassin who leaves drawings behind at murder scenes? Yes, they're all packed in here pretty tightly, and I give this novel four big stars for sheer zany fun, even though, in the end, it's a bit like a cross-country road trip: plenty to see along the way, but nothing really matters much till you reach your destination. Clues, and characters, are introduced and come and go, and in the end, as usual, an amateurish detective finds a single, subtle clue that wraps everything up with a neat little bow. But, you know, I expected nothing less. This would be a great read on the beach or on an airplane. Just don't expect to remember any of it once you close the book.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's okay, but about as deep as a made-for-TV movie, November 20, 2009
This review is from: The Morning Show Murders: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I've read dozens, maybe hundreds of mystery novels. I've certainly reviewed my fair share of cookbooks, too. So how could I _not_ be interested in a mystery novel featuring a celebrity chef who finds himself the chief suspect when his TV producer is killed? When I saw the book among my Amazon Vine options, I grabbed it.
It's easy to write a review for a 5-star book; there's plenty to gush about. It's also easy to write a 1-star review because the faults are so many. But the 3-star reviews are painful. This isn't a bad book. Not at all. If you read it, I expect that you will finish it, and the story will keep your attention all the way through. You might even chuckle a few times. But Al Roker's foray into fiction isn't at all wonderful, not in any way. It's just... okay. The mystery is a bit contrived, but I can forgive that. This is meant to be a fun mystery, not deep literature. (Though I sure laughed more at Marshall Karp's Flipping Out.)
Foodies be warned: this isn't a mystery novel where food or even eating is a major part of the story. For the most part, the chef-ingredients are just set dressing. Chef Billy Blessing (our hero) does cook a few meals here and there, but they are no more detailed than you'd find on a restaurant menu. Such as, the music had finished "...by the time I laid out the lamb en croute on the dinner table along with potato-leek soup, hot dinner rolls, and to slosh it all down, a tasty, Bordeaux-styled Corbieres." If you're looking for cooking techniques or recipes befitting a celebrity chef, you're out of luck. That's a minor disappointment -- but not a big problem. (There's far more actual cooking in Cleo Coyle's NY coffeehouse mysteries, starting with On What Grounds.)
What did bother me was that... I never really cared about Billy. Although some of the background characters are appealing, it felt to me as though Billy was a bit-player in his own life. The story has plenty of action and derring-do, but I never felt as though any of it mattered. With a good book, you don't read it, you *inhabit* it, and The Morning Show Murders never achieved that goal.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
INSIDER QUIPS AND AN ENTERTAINING MYSTERY, December 12, 2009
This review is from: The Morning Show Murders: A Novel (Hardcover)
Very few are as familiar with the ins, outs, and roundabouts of morning TV as is popular weatherman Al Roker. What few knew until recently was that he's not only engaging on camera but also an accomplished author ( Don't Make Me Stop This Car!: Adventures In Fatherhood, and several cookbooks.) Add to that description a smart fellow because when he decided to turn his pen to a mystery he wrote about what he knew - choosing as his protagonist Chef Billy Blessing who tantalizes viewers tastebuds each morning on Wake Up America!
It's a delicious treat to read Roker's book because of his ingenious use of and references to real people, places and programs. This gambit leaves readers wondering what is fact and what is fiction while enjoying every page. Don't know whether or not American Idol, Charles Gibson, Clint Eastwood, etc. enjoy their mentions, but readers surely will.
How's this for an opening line, "The big guy lumbered toward me, waving the cleaver. Weeping like a baby."? Roker pulls us in on page 1 and keeps us guessing until page 312.
Between his gigs on Wake Up America and running a vaunted NYC restaurant Chef Billy Blessing has been in tall cotton. Ooops, when the show's producer is murdered and his untimely departure is found to have been caused by coq au vin from Billy's restaurant, who is the prime suspect? None other than charming Billy. Producer Gallagher left behind a little black book filled with names and had recently been to Afghanistan, Kabul "to oversee a week of live evening news broadcasts." While there a man sharing a dinner table was murdered, his throat cut. Unwittingly Gallagher had become privy to dangerous, tightly guarded information. Worth murdering to keep secret?
Whatever the case, it's not long before some very unfriendly fellows are circling and it seems another death is in the offing. In order to clear himself Billy must not only find the killer but stay alive while doing it.
Roker has created a likable hero, spiced his story with insider quips, and woven an entertaining mystery - enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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